My Learning Journey …

Deeper Learning

Dream BIG! Be accused of being an idealist! And so my deeper learning journey begins.

I have a huge passion for leading and learning! The theatre of my mind has no limits!

As I begin my learning journey, I am reflecting on my thoughts and processes to be able to model pristinely what it means to be a lifelong leader and learner – to my pre-service teachers and to our College instructors (Certificate in Adult Education), and beyond–afterall, a dreamer sets out to change the world!

This reflection on my practices could be in the form of writings and in organizing my spaces, e.g., my ePortfolio, blog, resources, course sites, in discourse with visionaries, in readings and research and who knows where or what else. I need to discern opportunities for my students, what is best and will give them the best learning as I develop projects “on-the-fly” but I would like this to be more discerned, although granted that projects (inquiry) arise and I take advantage of opportunities. While this is my learning journey, I plan on taking others with me, because in the end, it’s not about me, but about ideas and opportunities to change the world!

Improving, no, let’s reword that, reforming teacher education is a huge part of my goal on this learning journey. I am looking to provide best learning opportunities and practices to my students in my courses, but more than this, to provide vision for my Centre for Teaching Excellence, Innovation and Research, and hopefully to other teacher education programs in other institutions.

I have many questions at this point in my journey:

How to be influential to my colleagues, to truly be contagious and inspiring?

CAE program – methods and technology classes – what is the best practice?

How to be influential in helping our provincial education department educate teachers for the future?

Assessment and evaluation for e-learning needs to be solid. I need a good model for this. I am developing a rubric for micro-teaching using a Google Doc and Flubaroo as a small example but am looking for the big picture — remember, change the world!

Students need to publish their work rather than hand it in. What are the assessment strategies for this? Ideas? Peer critique? What are the best spaces to publish their work? How about the nay-sayers, privacy, etc?

I am connecting teacher education programs in collaborative projects–Mystery Skype, Quadblogging – what are other ideas and needs for teacher education programs to research – connect, create, and share?

What are the best practices that North American, and more specifically, Canadian, education systems can glean from other countries’ models? What are the best practices that will work in our culture?

How to make creativity the norm in teaching and learning? Inquiry – authentic approaches?

What is the research to “prove” to skeptics that technology is necessary, not an option? Many teacher education programs require one tech course in a five-year program and teachers are not prepared to teach with technology even at a base level. (ISTE2014– What technologies do pre-service teachers need? Dr. Karl Sprenger, Clarion University) professors who are afraid of technology and don’t want to learn how to teach with technology hide behind excuses, ” we have to remember that it’s not about the technology and that it is about the student” True! So since it is about the student, why are educators depriving the student of the best learning opportunities? I believe it is critical that decision-makers see the proof to be convinced. This means that I have to develop models of proof.

What is the nugget that I will research to make a huge impact on education? How do I determine this? What are the lead indicators to answer my questions?

We are expecting transformation, we don’t want to be the same–we want to change – we are growing new skin – it’s not comfortable, it’s itchy until the new skin comes in.

And so, I am off and running on my learning journey to change the world. Today I drank from the firehose …

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2 thoughts on “Deeper Learning”

Hi Eva, like you I’m a teacher seeking to identify best practices derived not only from the literature, but from my own “un”common sense and experiences in the classroom. Making creativity a part of my everyday is paramount, and I remain convinced that it is possible with a little know-how and a lot of elbow grease, no matter what age or subject is taught. As we chatted about today in class, I think we’re both destined to join the myriad of voices calling out the current system, and will need help in our mutual desire to improve B.Ed. teacher training from the top down. Really have been enjoying our discussions in class, especially today’s latest with our focus on Authentic learning tasks and Jacobson’s (et al), references to intentionality in learners. Would imagine its difficult to make standard in today’s B.Ed. programs… not all of which are created equal to begin with. Looking forward to discussing further. It’s a world full of catch 22’s.

Thanks Ben! Yes, I feel like the cartoon, “Pinky and the Brain” where Pinky asks, “What are we going to do tonight Brain?” He replies, “Take over the world like we do every night!” The question seems simple but as you have stated, the common sense is “un” and becomes complex to most. We will keep moving forward and change will happen, one teacher at a time, one classroom at a time, until together, we do “take over the world!”